Haunted By A Whisper
by AsrarSonya
Summary: A ghost is attached to Tru. Melinda is there to help.


**Haunted By A Whisper**

Tru hangs her blue jacket up and promptly puts on her white coat. Her voice is weak, her face is pale. She tries not to look directly at her boss as she explains her late arrival and wobbly behavior.

"I'm not drunk," she tells him, "I'm just a little dizzy. I haven't gotten enough sleep in the past day or two." Tru justifies as she opens the mini fridge and takes out a soda can marked with a small note that says 'Tru'.

Davis rolls his eyes, turns his back and walks away mumbling something that she cannot hear or even care enough to know. Her sleepiness is making her edgy, and so is the unnecessary attention.

"Excuse me," a woman says from across the office, "I'm looking for Tru Davies. I was told I'd find her here."

Tru gives the woman an uneasy look while sipping her soda, wondering what could possibly be the case now. "I'm Tru… and you are…?"

"Oh, my name is Melinda Gordon; I am here to identify a body." The woman approaches with a smile and a hand shake.

"Oh, right, I was told you were coming. Grandview, right?" Melinda nods. "That's a long drive. Are you related to the deceased?" Tru asks as she leads her into the crypt.

"Uh no actually, I'm just newly acquainted with him." Melinda says while looking at the seemingly empty space next to her.

As both ladies approach the crypt, the florescent lights start flickering. Tru explains how this room had always suffered from bad electricity. Melinda does not comment, knowing that there is more to it than that. Tru opens the cooler door and pulls out the drawer on which a tall body is lying, covered with a white sheet.

With her one year experience at the morgue now, Tru knows how hard it is for people to see a dead body. "I feel like I should warn you though, nausea is a very common reaction people get when seeing a dead body. Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Yes." Melinda says nodding. "I've come a long way for this. Please!"

Tru lifts the sheet off the dead body's face, uncovering a slightly burnt white male.

Melinda quickly makes the distinction. "It's him. It's Shane Marcus." She says.

"Are you sure? He was found in a dumpster without any ID. We were only able to identify him through his finger prints and DNA testing."

Melinda seems distracted. Her eye sight keeps shifting from her right side to Tru's left side.

"Legally however, it's not enough." Tru continues. "Someone has to identify and claim the body for it to be authorized for a burial service, and you are the only one who's contacted us in weeks. We weren't able to find any relatives or friends."

One florescent light explodes, startling both Tru and Melinda.

"That's because he doesn't have any. He's pretty much a loner." Melinda clarifies.

Suddenly, every light bulb in the room explodes, sending off gas that makes the whole room sound and smell like a battle field. Tru feels a bit alarmed but not too surprised. She has been experiencing a few crazy unexplained incidents and bad accidents lately. Embarrassed that all this is happening in front of a complete stranger, she hesitantly apologizes and puts the blame on her boss's negligence in keeping up with the maintenance boys. Her embarrassment however quickly dies down and is replaced by severe bewilderment when she notices the most unusual reaction from Melinda. The darkness and creepiness of the place is doubled by this odd woman's behavior.

"Stop it. You're not achieving anything with this rage." Melinda tells her ghost. But to an outsider like Tru, she looks worse than someone who's talking to herself. She looks like someone talking to ghosts! "Of course not!" She continues, "Now is your chance to let go and forgive yourself."

Unsure what is going on exactly, Tru slowly takes out her cell phone. "Davis, we have a situation here." She whispers. "This woman is freaking out in a way I've never seen before… No she's not suicidal, but I think she might be schizophrenic. Hurry!"

Melinda overhears Tru's conversation. She knows she has to tell her the truth, and is not too afraid to be labeled crazy or considered an unreliable witness. She has a feeling that someone working at a morgue is more open to paranormal experiences than anyone else.

"I'm sorry, I know I may seem crazy to you, but believe me, I'm here to help." She tries to explain.

"Help who?"

"Shane Marcus. I'm here to help him. That's what I do."

Tru immediately fires out a: "What?" A mini question under which many other questions of a paranormal kind are hiding. "Do what exactly?"

"I help the dead." Melinda responds.

Davis barges into the room, interrupting the tensely charged atmosphere. "Is everything OK? W...Why is it dark in here?"

Still trying to catch her breath after the shocking revelation, Tru tells Davis about the lights, giving the initial explanation that it might be an electric overcharge. Everything else, she tells him, is under control. He excuses himself out of the room after turning on an emergency power generator. Tru and Melinda are left alone; each looking the other in the eyes, wondering what words might be suitable to say.

"You help the dead? How?" Tru asks, wondering if there are other people like her. After all she did meet Jack. Although he's her rival and therefore has a totally different agenda, but he does relive days nonetheless. Maybe there are more Trus and Jacks out there that she isn't aware of.

"I help them cross over, into the light." Melinda says softly.

"Cross over?" She thinks, "You mean stay dead?" Getting a feeling that Melinda is most probably one of the Jacks!

"I help earth-bound spirits find a new life… you know… beyond."

"OK, now I'm confused. Earth-bound spirits?" Tru asks wondering if that's just a novel way of explaining Jack's point of view.

"I see spirits. I know it sounds crazy, but I help them in unsolved issues until they are at peace enough to cross over to the other side."

Now Tru is certain that this is beyond what she had expected. This woman's powers are a little bit different than hers and Jack's, or so she claims.

"You mean you're some kind of a medium?"

"I guess you could say that."

"So, you're telling me that Shane Marcus..."

"Is here. Was here, actually. He's gone now."

"Gone into the light?" The morgue's light?" Tru wonders.

"No… He hasn't crossed over yet. What happened to the lights here was because of an electric overcharge like you said, but the reason for it was his rage. He feels remorse for walking out on his wife and kids 20 years ago."

"His 'spirit' told you that, right now, right here?"

"Yes."

"What else did it tell you?" Tru questions suspiciously.

"Information about his murderer."

Tru's suspicions escalate at this point. She cannot believe a word this woman is saying. She thinks maybe this woman has something to do with his murder and is trying to hide the evidence or mislead the ongoing investigation.

"Well, I bet the police would be very interested in what you have to say." Tru tells her while pushing the body tray back into the cooler and locking the door tightly, leading Melinda out of the crypt before she gets a chance to tamper with the body in any way.

"You know, I thought you of all people would believe me." Melinda stops her.

"What is that supposed to mean? You come in here and claim that you talk to dead people, and I'm supposed to believe that because you throw in a strong argument?" Tru shouts.

"Is it too shocking to you that someone communicates with the dead? Someone with your ability is actually questioning mine?" Melinda finally reveals.

Tru stops. "Whoa… What are you talking about?"

"The dead ask you for help too, the only difference between us is that your days rewind and you try to save them from dying. My job is to save their spirits after death, which if you ask me isn't as shocking or even as miraculous as reliving days. So who's the one with the stronger argument here, you or me?"

Tru is too shocked to move a muscle. Her mind is racing. She does manage to reluctantly utter a few scattered words that Melinda picks up on.

"H… Wha… How did…"

"Your mother's ghost is here with us now, Tru. She told me about what you can do."

"My mother's ghost?" now Tru's confusion is turning into anger. "My mother has been dead for ten years. And she's definitely not a ghost."

"She hasn't crossed over yet because she's attached to you, she's very worried about you."

"But it's been ten years." Tru says, trying bravely not to cry.

"The concept of time does not exist on the other side." Melinda's explanation is followed by moments of sad silence. She's listening carefully to Tru's mom's ghost, who is standing right beside her daughter.

"She wants you to know that she's proud of you." Melinda tells Tru.

Tears start trickling down heavily on Tru's cheeks. Part of her really wants to believe that this is all true and that she finally has the chance to communicate with her mother, even if indirectly. But the skeptic and more rational part of her does not believe this strange woman who walked in here claiming she sees and talks to the dead. "Who put you up to this, ha? Was it Jack? Or is this just another one of Harrison's stupid pranks?"

"This isn't a prank, Tru. This is my job; my calling. And it's not stupid." Melinda feeling a little bit of an insult in Tru's accusations.

"No, it's just plain nuts." Tru fires and walks away.

"You were there when your mother was murdered. She hid you in the closet and asked you to stay there." Melinda repeats what Tru's mother is telling her, in an attempt to make her stop and listen.

But Tru clearly does not want to. "How dare you?"

"She says you've always felt guilty for being there but not being able to save her. But the truth is you did."

Tru is more open to listen now, but it's more out of desperation than curiosity.

"You did try to save her, on day one. You jumped right in front of her and the bullet hit you instead." Melinda assures.

"What?"

"The day your mother died was a rewind day, Tru. You died trying to save her on day one and then you asked for her help and the day rewound. That's why she knew exactly what was going to happen. That's why she hid you in the closet. She was the one who was supposed to be killed that day, not you."

A quick flash of memory takes Tru back to the day her mother was shot. She remembers her mom rushing her upstairs into the bedroom and hiding her in the closet. She remembers the killer's voice asking Elise if her daughter was there. Elise said no, and the killer's response was: "Good." Then she heard the gun shot.

"He knew!" Tru says. "He knew what happened on day one; otherwise he wouldn't have cared to ask where I was." She finally understands.

"Your mom confirms that. She says that the killer was a hitman, and he knew because your mom's rival was the one who wanted her killed, and so he was the one who told him not to make the same mistake again."

"Mom's rival? But, who…?" More memories fill up in her brain adding more pieces to the puzzle. In a split second she remembers her father admitting that he and Elise had problems for two years before she died, and that they were planning a divorce. She could also understand why her father walked out on them after Elise's death and why he only showed up again, trying to make amends and gain their trust soon after Tru got her ability, and just about the same time she met Jack.

"DAD!" She finally figures it out. "Dad was mom's rival. He was her opposite."

"Tru, your mom can hear you, you can talk to her."

Tru does not question Melinda's efforts any more. She believes her. She is now too caught up in the conversation that there is no room for rationalization. "Why mom? Why did you stay there and wait for him? Why didn't you run?"

Melinda waits for Elise to explain, then tells Tru her answer: "She was up against an ex-con who would stop at nothing to get his target, and an ex-husband who knew her every move and could relive days and change circumstances. She could run but she could not hide."

"But you could've told me you were in danger. I could've helped you, somehow."

"She says you are helping her, now, by honoring everything she believed in and stood up for. This calling is what cost her her life, and it is what will make it all worth it if you continue her legacy and devote yourself entirely to it."

"I promise you, mom, I won't let you down. Your calling is my calling now, and I will not rest until I see justice prevail."

Tru is crying. Melinda approaches her with mixed feelings of concern and admiration.

"She knows how brave and passionate you are. She just wants you to be safe and always on full alert."

"No worries mom, you raised me well." Tru says right before she feels a chill but welcoming sensation on her cheek, brushing down on her brown hair. Her mother's ghost is touching her gently as Melinda watches with teary eyes.

"She's ready to cross over now." Melinda tells Tru. "She's saying goodbye."

"I never got the chance to say goodbye before. But now that I can, I just want to say I love her so much. I really can't find other words to express how I feel."

"It's all she wanted to hear." Melinda says. "She loves you too. She's telling you to take care of your brother and sister."

"I will." Tru assures her departing mother, sobbing.

Melinda observes as Tru's mother walks into the light and disappears out of sight.

"She's gone."


End file.
